WH40K Dark Heresy

[hewligan]

I bought the hardback a few months ago, basically the day of release, in a local Borders here in the UK. They bought a large amount and sold all quickly.

I have only been skimming the book so far due to lack of free time, but that is changing now and I will be picking it back up soon. It uses a similar character system to the Warhammer RPG - a fact that I like a lot. Sure, it limits characters initially to just the inquisiter and related classes, with Space Marines, etc. lined up for some future release I guess (although they are effectively super human, so I am happy to play with normal mortals for a while first).

The Calixis Sector where they base the game seems quite interesting, and there are TONS of opportunities for investigative as well as gothic assault type campaigns.

I thought the book was of excellent quality, but there are a lot of tables and thus I was a little nervous that it may be difficult to GM. I am going to read it over and perhaps use it for my next PbP game (in a few months).

 

[hewligan]

Actually, there are a couple of sneak previews on the Fantasy Flight website worth having a look at.

Guardsman and Bionic sections from the Core Rulebook

 

[Shining Dragon]

Yeah, I may have to just wait for the FFG version. Will it be worth $10 more? Anyone?

As mentioned above, it will have the errata (which is available on the FFG site here ).

But I don't think its worth $10 more based on that. Unfortunately if you want the game then $10 more is what you'll have to play.

FYI I paid $AUD80 for the game. That's $US74 using today's exchange rate. So you're still better off than me paying $US59.95. But crikey mate! $US59.95 is getting into the realms of too expensive and its unlikely I would have purchased the game with that price.

Are there rules for ratling PCs? Hobbits in SPAAAACE!

No. Not yet. It has been speculated that Rogue Trader will have rules for such things (the speculation has mainly been about Xenos, but I guess you could include Ab-Humans in there as well).

Actually, there are a couple of sneak previews on the Fantasy Flight website worth having a look at.

Guardsman and Bionic sections from the Core Rulebook

They're not really sneak previews and they're also content originally posted on the Black Industries website before DH was released.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

One thing I'll note about Dark Heresy is that it explicitly mentions in the book that once you've maxed out in DH, you're basically done with the character. If you want do do other stuff with the character, then you should look at their upcoming books like Rogue Trader.

As it was initially talked about, it sounded like the games were going to be focused and sort of standalone. Dark Heresy, Rogue Trader, and whatever the last one was. The last one was/is supposed to cover Space Marines as I recall.

None of them were supposed to cover playing non-humans to my knowledge. Total humie love-fest. It was speculated that the new Rogue Trader book would be most likely to cover xenos as pcs, but nobody (to my knowledge) really knows if there'd be _any_ support for it, or which book it'd be in. Clearly it's not in the DH book.

Spinachat seems to be spot on with his comparison to Call of Cthulhu. Personally, I don't like CoC at least not as most people seem to like it. DH falls into the same category. If you start talking about DH looking more like "Die Hard" than "Alien", it seems like you're going to get a lot of people telling you how you're doing it wrong. You're also going to have to jigger things a bit to get it over to the "Die Hard" side of things.

Default DH rules seem to assume you're a chump (whereas the fluff implies you're not), and you're going to spend a fair amount of time as a chump.

 

[Gundark]

Yeah, I may have to just wait for the FFG version. Will it be worth $10 more? Anyone?

I'm probably in the minority, so maybe keep that in mind. I didn't like the game as much as the fantasy version.

There was a lot of fidely bits with the game.

It wasn't a bad game at all.....just didn't live up to my expectations

 

[Shining Dragon]

One thing I'll note about Dark Heresy is that it explicitly mentions in the book that once you've maxed out in DH, you're basically done with the character. If you want do do other stuff with the character, then you should look at their upcoming books like Rogue Trader.

I think this is an incorrect assumption. I've seen others assume Rogue Trader would contain "advanced" character rules. But its also meant to be a core rulebook like Dark Heresy, just with a different focus.

Default DH rules seem to assume you're a chump (whereas the fluff implies you're not), and you're going to spend a fair amount of time as a chump.

Your attributes may be low, but you are also meant to make use of all the situational bonuses where possible to get another +30%. A Test considered Challenging is +0% (with Ordinary at +10% and Routine at +20%).

Then there's also the issue of comparing your starting character to a character from a novel. That's like comparing a 1st level Ranger with Drizzt.

 

[DragonLancer]

From what I understand Black Industries sold out within the first few hours. I know that the Borders in Lee’s Summit had one the last time I was there, but that was a few weeks ago. I’ve heard that getting a second printing of Dark Heresy out is one of the first things on FF’s to-do list.

According to my FLGS's suppliers, the reprint of DH rulebook has been pushed back to August.

 

[Imperialus]

I'm probably in the minority, so maybe keep that in mind. I didn't like the game as much as the fantasy version.

I think they're both good games, just different. WHFRP is cool simply because there are so many options for careers but the options within those careers are somewhat limited. The DH career path is more ridged but there is a much wider variety of skills to choose from within that career. WHFRP is a bit more 'gamist' where you have to plan out a career to get the most of it and be careful in what skills you choose to advance in in order to qualify for some of the advanced careers. DH is a bit more forgiving. Sure you have to think about how you're going to branch out and what skills you want to take but a few hundred misspent XP isn't going to break a character. In Fantasy it can. WHFRP also takes a lot of effort to plan out a characters advancement and given the PC death rate it can sometimes be a bit frustrating.

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

I think this is an incorrect assumption. I've seen others assume Rogue Trader would contain "advanced" character rules. But its also meant to be a core rulebook like Dark Heresy, just with a different focus.

When I get home tonight I'll provide a page and an exact quote to justify this assumption.

As for the rest of your post, I don't see any point in a detailed response to it.

At the end of the day, I feel the game rules by default assume the characters are chumps. Yes, there's some bits given that can reduce the chump factor. But they're additional. _If_ the GM decides, then you might get a bonus.

If someone picks up Dark Heresy expecting it does Die Hard Inquisitor or Aliens, they're going to be disappointed. You can bash it around and get there, but it's _not_ the default assumption of the game. Just like the default assumption of Warhammer Fantasy is not powered up hero characters like D&D.

If they pick up the game wanting Call of Cthulhu in space or creeping around like Alien, then they'll probably be happy.

 

[klofft]

I guess we'll just have to wait for the long-overdue re-launch of Mutant Chronicles for Die Hard Inquisitors in space then.